Jesus is so tired that he falls again under the weight of the cross. He is bruised and bleeding and the soldiers whip him to hurry him along.

If we are afraid of falling, we will never walk again. If our focus is on not falling, we will miss the thrill of living. An infant learning to walk will fall but get back up to try again. Each time, they will get stronger and better for their failure. How many times have we heard from a convicted felon that his going to prison was the best thing that ever happened to them? Either because they discovered strength and perseverance that they did not know they had, a deep font of compassion for the least of these or, it saved their life from a downward spiral of crime and destructive behavior. Falling and failure often makes us stronger.

Remember the great circus act, “The Flying Walendas”? It was a family of performers who glided through the air with the greatest of ease. They dared the forces of gravity by walking on wires stretched high across canyons and chasms of every sort. In 1978, Karl Walenda, the founder of the troupe died when he fell trying to walk a wire between two ten-story buildings in Puerto Rico. Later, Karl's wife told a newspaper “All Karl thought about for three months prior to his death was falling. It seemed to me that he put all his energies into NOT falling rather than WALKING that tightrope.”

Where do we put our energies? On our fear of falling or our faith in walking? Falling is the easy part, it is getting up that is the hard part. When we fall, we can get up and walk again. When we fail in sin, we can be forgiven again. When a loved one dies, we can live again. Jesus fell in love for us, for whom will we fall?